Daugherty Updates County on Mississippi River Levee Plan

Councilman Jerry Daugherty, D-District 6, during the St. Charles County work session Monday gave an update on a plan to regulate the Mississippi River.

Plan H, proposed by the Mississippi River Commission, would allow levees on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River and upstream of St. Charles, Pike and Lincoln counties to raise levees to the 500-year flood level. Those three counties would not be allotted money to raise levees in those locations.

“St. Charles, Pike and Lincoln counties would basically be water holding tanks for Illinois,” Daugherty told the council during the work session.

Daugherty told the council that some Illinois levee district officials hope the plan receives congressional approval, even if it is not financed.

“It’s a $6 billion-plan, and everyone knows there’s no money in the federal budget for it,” he said. “Besides, the plan is not economically feasible.”

The study was performed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers. However, the Corps of Engineers has not endorsed putting the plan into practice. Corps officials said that for every dollar spent on the project, it would provide 10 cents in benefits.

But Daugherty pointed out that some Illinois levee district officials hope Plan H receives congressional approval even if it’s not funded.

“The richest levee district in the world is directly across from Pike and Lincoln counties (in Illinois),” Daugherty said.

He said that levee district and possibly others could fund levee improvements themselves if Congress approves the plan. Daugherty said that Missouri senators Claire McCaskill and Kit Bond have spoken out against Plan H.

"There needs to be a plan for the Mississippi River, but these three counties need to be included, and they were left out of this plan," he said.

Daugherty told the council that the three counties are planning to join together to form a nonprofit group to cooperate on opposing Plan H.

Daugherty also noted the study does not take Mississippi River tributaries into account, including the Missouri River.

“The Missouri River drains one-sixth of the continental United States, and it was not even taken into account,” Daugherty said.